One of the most apparent advantages of spread betting/trading is the beneficial option of going short (or sell) a stock or share. You can therefore benefit from either a rising or falling market!

No Commission or Fees

Because Tradefair Spreads is not a stockbroker, we do not charge any commission or fees. The only 'fee' is the spread we charge on the prices that are quoted.

Gearing

Spread bet trading also gives you the opportunity to trade in sizes much smaller than those usually available in the underlying market. In a similar sense you may also beneift from an opportunity to trade in larger positions than are normally permitted in the underlying market, without the requirement to deposit large sums of money.

Tax Free Profits(1)

All of your spread betting profits are recognised as the winnings of a bet, and are therefore free from Capital Gains and Income Tax.

Tight Spreads

At Tradefair Spreads our mission is to provide value for money coupled with a top quality service. You'll find our spreads quotes far better value than most of our competitors. In some cases, you will find that our spreads are extremely well positioned competitively, in relation to the underlying, live market quotes. For example, our Daily Rolling FTSE spread is just 1 point and our Daily Rolling Sterling/Dollar quote is just 34 points. Compare our spreads to that of our competitors.

(1) For residents of UK & Sweden. Please check your local tax laws. Tax law can change.

Limit your Risk

Spread Trading is a high-risk activity, but at Tradefair Spreads we want you to enjoy the whole spread betting experience. The automated stop-loss facility we can provide is an invaluable tool which encourages you to fully understand and control your risk. However, you must be aware that stop-losses are not guaranteed. Your stop-loss is set according to the available funds in your account up to a maximum computer-generated level. You can alter you stop-loss to suit your individual needs. We also hold an additional 25% of your funds to allow for slippage or a market gap.

Risks

Although you are in a position to make substantial profits from spread betting / trading, if the markets move away from your bet, your losses can also be substantial and although Tradefair has a policy in force of attempting to limit client losses on bets by applying an automatic stop-loss to all of the bets you make, these stops are not guaranteed. As a consequence, if a market gaps, you may lose more than your initial deposit value.

Why Should Spread Trading Interest me?

Spread trading appeals to a wide variety of individuals who want to take advantage of the versatility and great value that spread trading can offer.

Experienced investors use spread betting as an extra trading tool as the spreads we offer rival the prices available in the real market. As an alternative, many investors use spread trading to hedge thier existing share portfolio. For example, if you have some shares which are decreasing in value in the short-term, you could 'sell' the value of the share using a sell (short) bet with Tradefair Spreads and possibly make a profit to counter-balance the decreasing value of your shares.

You don't need to be an experienced investor to spread bet, but you should always (DYOR) do your own research on the products that you wish to trade and be aware of the risks associated with trading in them. Many individuals new to spread trading use technical analysis to guide their investment decision. Tradefair Spreads provide live charts for every product we quote to assist you with your technical analysis.

One of the problems that spread betting companies have is the use of the term 'spread betting', as this gives a false impression to the marketplace.

Spread Betting is in actual fact a highly adaptable trading tool. With a Tradefair Spreads account you can trade in many financial products using just one currency - we offer prices on UK, European and US shares, World Indidces, Commodities and Foreign Exchange. You can bet on the Cash, the Future or the Rolling Daily products - the choice is yours!

Spread bets are margined trading products, which means you only need to deposit a small percentage of the full value of your trade leaving your additional capital to continue working hard elsewhere. For example, a £1 bet on a share is the equivalent of buying (or selling) 100 real shares. On most shares our minimum Initial Margin Requirement (deposit) is 3-5% of the underlying value of the shares which means that you can take out a spread bet in a share with as little as 1/30th of the cash required to buy the actual real shares from a broker.

Also, because Tradefair Spreads is not a stockbroker, we do not charge any commission or fees. We make a profit from the spread we add to the underlying market prices, which result in our quotes. Plus, don't forget, that UK residents benefit even more because your profits do not incur any Capital Gains and Income tax.

Whilst this type of trading offers many benefits not found elsewhere, it is very important to note that it carries a high level of risk to your capital, so you should only bet with money you can safely afford to lose. We do offer compulsory stop-losses, but it is still very much possible for you to lose more than your initial deposit.

The term 'Spread' refers to the Sell (Bid) and Buy (Offer) price quoted by a spread betting company. The price is worked out by adding additional points around the live (or approximate future) market price of a financial product. For example, if the Daily FTSE is trading at 4729 our quote might be 4727 - 4730.

At Tradefair Spreads, only small deposits are required to open a new position (as little as £10-£40 for a £1 bet depending on the market in question). Once you have chosen a market on which you want to bet, you can then bet your preferred stake. This will represent your profit or loss per point movement in that market (each market has its own individual maximum allowable stake).

You can then bet £1 (or 1 dollar or 1 euro) per point/tick on the movement of the spread prices that we quote. You can then bet on whether that market will rise, or alternatively, you can bet that it will fall. If you are correct in the decision you make, you will make a profit of your original stake multiplied by each point that the market moves in your favour. If you are wrong you make a loss of your stake multiplied by each point it moves away from you.

For this reason, you must be conscious that your losses can increase dramatically if the markets move substantially in the opposite direction to your original bet (for example, if you make a buy bet in the FTSE 100 and instead of going up, it goes down).

All spread betting profits are recognised as the winnings of a bet, and are therefore free of Capital Gains and Income Tax.

Spread Betting is a tax free, cost efficient alternative to traditional share dealing. It allows you to speculate on the movement of stocks, shares, commodities, currencies and indices with the need for a stockbroker, therefore you do not have to pay any commission or fees. Tradefair creates a spread around the live underlying market price* and you can then bet on whether this market will go up or down.

* Tradefair's quote is always based upon the prices obtained from the various financial exchanges around the world. These prices are referred to as the 'underlying markets'.